MediaWiki

Introduction

MediaWiki is a popular open source Wiki software engine powering sites such as Wikipedia, Fandom, and wikiHow, among others.

Prerequisites and assumptions

The following are the minimum requirements for using this procedure:

• The ability to run commands as the root user or use sudo to elevate privileges
• Familiarity with a command-line editor. The author is using vi or vim here, but substitute in your favorite editor

Installing Apache

Apache is the web server you will use. Install it with:

dnf -y install httpd

Next, open the corresponding firewall ports:

sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Installing PHP

To install PHP, you need first to install the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux):

dnf -y install epel-release && dnf -y update

You also need the Remi repository. Install it with the following:

dnf install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-10.rpm

Then install PHP and the required modules:

dnf install -y dnf install php84-php-fpm php84-php-intl php84-php-mbstring php84-php-apcu php84-php-curl php84-php-mysql php84-php-xml

Enable PHP with:

systemctl enable --now php84-php-fpm.service

Installing MariaDB

You need MariaDB for the database. Install it with:

dnf install mariadb-server

Next enable the systemd service and run the setup wizard:

systemctl enable --now mariadb
mysql_secure_installation

When asked for the root password press Enter :

Enter current password for root (++enter++ for none):

Answer n to unix_socket authentication:

Switch to unix_socket authentication [Y/n] n

Answer Y to changing the root password and enter the needed root password:

Change the root password? [Y/n] Y
New password: 
Re-enter new password: 

Remove the anonymous users and disallow remote root logins:

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y
...
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] Y

Remove access to the test database and reload privilege tables:

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] Y
...
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] Y

Login to MariaDB with:

mysql -u root -p

Enter the root password you created earlier.

When you are in the MariaDB console, create the database for MediaWiki:

MariaDB [(none)]> create database mediawiki;

Next, create the MediaWiki user:

MariaDB [(none)]> create user 'mediawiki'@'localhost' identified by 'nchauhan11';

Grant privileges on the MediaWiki database:

grant all privileges on mediawiki.* to 'mediawiki'@'localhost';

Finally, flush the privileges with:

MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges;

Installing MediaWiki

Go to the /var/www/ directory and download MediaWiki:

cd /var/www/
wget https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.44/mediawiki-1.44.0.zip

Unzip and move MediaWiki:

unzip mediawiki-1.44.0.zip
mv mediawiki-1.44.0/* html/

Set the correct SELinux permissions:

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html
semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t "/var/www/html(/.*)?"
restorecon -Rv /var/www/html

Enable Apache:

systemctl enable --now httpd

Next, open a browser to http://your_ip (Replace your_ip with your IP address):

Select your language and click Continue:

Check to see if the PHP configuration is correct, scroll down and click Continue:

Now, enter the database information as follows:

• Database host: localhost

• Database name (no hyphens): mediawiki (or the database created in the MariaDB step)

• Database username:: mediawiki (or the user created in the MariaDB step)

• Database password: The password you created in the MariaDB step

Click Continue:

In the MediaWiki version installation page, enter the following:

• URL host name: The URL you want

• Name of wiki: The Wiki name you want

• Administrator account/Your username: The admin username you want to use

• Administrator account/Password (again): The admin password you want to use

• Administrator account/Email address: The email address of the admin user

Optionally, you can also select Ask me more questions to fine-tune the Wiki. For simplicity's sake, just select I'm bored already, just install the wiki and click Continue:

Click Continue to install the Wiki:

MediaWiki will set up the databases. When it finishes, click Continue:

Your browser will download a LocalSettings.php file. You will upload this to your server with sftp.

As an example, the author will use their Fedora 42 laptop to upload this file. To do so:

sftp root@your_ip
(Enter password)
cd /var/www/html
put LocalSettings.php 

Finally, click enter your wiki:

You now have a fresh MediaWiki installation.

Conclusion

While MediaWiki is best known for powering Wikipedia, it is useful as a content management system where users need the ability to edit pages. MediaWiki is a good open source alternative to Microsoft's SharePoint.

Author: Neel Chauhan

Contributors: Steven Spencer